As the westernmost institution in the UNC system, Western Carolina University provides
educational opportunities to residents of the state’s western region and attracts
students from around the globe to explore the area’s vast resources.

At Western Carolina University, we view our admissions process as our opportunity
to build the community that defines our institution. We look for people eager to explore
and ready to redefine success.

Programs and courses at Western Carolina are designed to provide hands-on, applied
experience. Students engage with communities across the region as they practice their
profession in real-world environments.

Western Carolina’s unique mountain location helps fuel a vibrant campus community
with more than 170 student clubs and organizations as well as a busy performing arts
calendar and the campus’s own adventure guide service.

Western Carolina is home to 16 Southern Conference athletic teams with more than 375
student athlete competitors. WCU strives to inspire student-athletes to compete like
champions on the field and in the classroom.

Western Carolina was founded to serve the region it calls home, and that has not changed.
WCU continues to focus on regional development initiatives, engaged service and community
programs. It also partners with alumni and donors to ensure access to higher education
for deserving students in the region and beyond.

About Western Carolina

WCU Main Campus

WCU’s proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the tremendous biodiversity
of the Southern Appalachian mountains provides research and discovery access for a
wide variety of science programs.

WCU healthcare students gain experience by delivering care to surrounding rural communities,
including unique populations such a migrant farm workers and members of the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians.

Growing industries in the region seek assistance from WCU’s engineering and business
students through WCU’s Center for Rapid Product Realization and the university’s Corporation
for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The vast 600-acre mountain campus property includes one of only six U.S. body farms
for the study of forensic science, forensic anthropology and criminology.

WCU acts as the cultural heart of a region, allowing theater, music performance and
visual art students experience performing in the campus’s 1,000-seat regional theater
and showcasing work in the one of the region’s leading art galleries.